Detroit Free Press Columnist

Related Links

The NFL should remember that the Super Bowl is primarily a football game. Through 47 years, it has evolved into an occasionally annoying sideshow blown beyond all logical proportions over concerns regarding the quality of the halftime entertainment, the quantity of artery-hardening house party delectables and the marketing creativity of the television commercials.

And if the on-field product is compelling, the usual response from the millions of casual participants in the day's festivities is: "You mean there was a game played today?"

But as the lights went out at the Superdome barely 2 minutes into the third quarter Sunday, it hopefully clicked on a light inside NFL commissioner Roger Goodell: If you can't maintain the competitive integrity of the game itself, the entire event's a sham.

The NFL should be embarrassed. The damagingly long 34-minute blackout was a black eye for a league that prides itself on its elaborate levels of preparation. It dramatically and unfairly shifted the game's momentum away from a dominant Baltimore Ravens performance, poised for the kill shot against a San Francisco team gasping for air after the Ravens returned the second-half opening kickoff 108 yards for a 28-6 lead.

Goodell's lucky the Ravens held on for a 34-31 victory. If not, he would have been skewered Monday for apparent procedural breakdowns between the league, the city of New Orleans and Superdome stadium operations.

The 34-minute delay coupled with the customary half-hour halftime show meant there was nearly a continuous 90-minute stoppage in play in the world championship game when you want performance as close to peak as possible. How could that not compromise the integrity of the competition?

Everyone coordinated their stories Monday while still investigating the "abnormality" that automatically shut down the stadium's electrical grid. The local energy company responsible for powering the Superdome said auxiliary power sources were available. But nobody could provide an explanation as to how nobody was prepared for the possibility that the power could go out and quickly implement a contingency plan.

"There's no indication at all that this was the result of the halftime show," Goodell assured reporters at his Monday news conference.

Whew! That's a relief. It wasn't Beyonce's fault.

Goodell expressed confidence that once the problem's indentified, it will be corrected and prevented from happening again. But maybe the overriding problem is that the NFL has forgotten its main responsibility isn't producing a MTV special. It's orchestrating the best competitive environment possible for a championship football game.

It failed Sunday.

Can you imagine what might happen next year when the Super Bowl comes to the New Jersey Meadowlands, the first time ever for an outdoor northern venue? The NFL promised the New York area the Big Game for the Big Millions thrown into the construction of the new MetLife Stadium. But if weather then resembles anything close to the freezing cold and snow showers from this past weekend, you might hear even more cries that the NFL is increasingly less interested in the game as opposed to everything surrounding it.

But if Beyonce gets to do an encore outdoors next Super Sunday, she'll probably require a tad more clothing than she needed Sunday.